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TIMES POSTCARD
“Leader, take those clothes off”
By Rajpal Abeynayake
Some international affairs commentators are angry with Evo Morales, the new Bolivian leader. It's neither because of his cocaine policy, nor due to his anti-Americanism.

They say they just don't like his sweater.
Morales met three world leaders including South African President Thabo Mbekei wearing the same red white and blue striped pullover.
One horrified columnist is supposed to have asked 'can't somebody lend Mr. Morales a dark suit?"

Why?
What does his country's people want to do? Carry placards saying "marry me Morales'' the way Australian cricket supporters carry signs that say "marry me Bret Lee'' "want a maiden Symonds -- we can help out."?

What would these columnists say when they meet Mahinda Rajapakse?
"Take that red thing off, and wear a rose on your lapel." "If you have to go in white, wear a pair of white deck shoes.''

But its what the Europeans have always wanted down the ages — for foreign leaders to borrow their sartorial policy as well as their global policy. Winston Churchill took one look at Mahathma Gandhi when he visited London and called him "that half naked fakhir.'' When the Mahathma met the King, a newspaper columnist, with more than shades of that recent reaction to Morales, asked Gandhi "do you think it's appropriate to meet the King in that piece of cloth?''
The reply: "You need not worry — the King was dressed enough for both of us.''

Asked in the same exchange about what he though of Western civilization, Gandhi said ''I think it will be a good idea.'' If they asked Mahinda Rajapakse to wear white deck shoes, or a dark jacket over his saatakaya on his next European visit, perhaps Rajapakse can agree to do so, but, not without conditions.

The next time Bill Clinton visits this country — or George Bush Snr,. they should both don the white national, and the kurrakan saatakaya round their necks. There is a fringe benefit in this: Clinton will be cooler in the stifling Colombo heat.

Strange anyway how this kurrakan saatakaya intrigues the sartorial sensibilities of tuxedo wearing foreign entrepreneurs. Or for that matter, Sri Lankan entrepreneurs wearing tie and jacket, who would love to think they are tuxedo wearing foreign entrepreneurs.

Take the Colombo hotel re-launch recently, quick on the heels of the presidential election. Every guest at the grand opening was given a saatakaya of one colour or the other. Mahinda Rajapakse's saatakaya was made an instrument for the Colombo social elite to amuse themselves while ingratiating themselves with the new powers-that-be. After all, weeks before, they would have all been scoffing at the man with the red cloth round his neck, 'who thinks he is going to be President.'

So what do they do anyway, at this socially spiced up grand hotel re-launch? They get the World Bank resident representative here to wear a red sattakaya, and he smiles as if he had just been officially made Santa Claus, never mind that unofficially he is.

Basically, the hotel made a stand up joke of the curious Presidential attire — curious to these tuxedo wearing businessman at least.

Well, no quarrels, all in good fun what?
But what should Sri Lankans have done when Margaret Thatcher for instance visited Sri Lanka to commission the Victoria dam among other things decades ago? If everything about a leader’s attire is up for laughs, as the grand show with the Sattakays showed, Sri Lankans should have handed out something to guests when Margaret Thatcher came in for the evening cocktails. A sheer mauve lace brassiere?? Black pantyhose?? There weren't many leaders in the world wearing this kind of thing in those 1970s what?

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